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swinferno writes "The Dutch ISPs Ziggo and XS4all are no longer required to block access to the websites of The Pirate Bay. [Original in Dutch; here's Google's translation.] This has been decided by the court in The Hague. The blockade has proven to be ineffective. The Dutch anti-piracy organization BREIN will have to reimburse legal costs of €326,000. The internet provider XS4ALL has already started lifting the ban. The website of The Pirate Bay was ordered to be blocked by the two major ISPs in January 2012. Recent studies by Amsterdam University and CentERdata showed that this did not reduce the number of downloads from illegal sources. Many people circumvented the blockade."

On the other hand, I commend lawmakers and Judges for looking at the data and making a rational decision.

In many places, the politicians enter the discussion with an idea of how things work. Most of the time, they simply refuse to change their mind, damn the evidence.

I tip my hat to the Dutch judges or politicians who reserve judgement, wait for a peer-reviewed or statistically rigorous assessment from an independent body, and then make a reasonable decision from that.

Just because YOU feel it is obvious, obviously many people don't. Good data is the most appropriate counter to ignorant assumptions.

This, I always thought, was always rather a silly and pithy quote from Jesus. As Christian theology makes clear, you will be judged regardless of if you do or do not judge. So maybe it makes sense to judge on occasion, just for the hell of it.

For example, I'm relatively certain that at the end of days, Harry Connick, Jr. and Jennifer Lopez will be judged for their talents of lack thereof, regardless of the fact that they were judges on American Idol.

This, I always thought, was always rather a silly and pithy quote from Jesus. As Christian theology makes clear, you will be judged regardless of if you do or do not judge.

Christian theology doesn't teach that you are judged for your sins. It teaches that you're judged on your good works, your sins have already been paid for in blood. The more good you do on Earth, the more your reward will be in heaven. "And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury. And he saw also a certain

Actually, it can be quite revealing to make studies about the obvious. Obvious means that we can easily come up with a good narrative about what we see and what we should expect, but that narrative does not necessarily connect somehow to what really happens. The often cited example is that of Newton's apple, where it is obvious that it's the Earth pulling down the apple, but it's not what really happens.

So yes: Study the obvious thoroughly, and you pretty soon lose any idea about "obviousness".

Actually, it can be quite revealing to make studies about the obvious. Obvious means that we can easily come up with a good narrative about what we see and what we should expect, but that narrative does not necessarily connect somehow to what really happens. The often cited example is that of Newton's apple, where it is obvious that it's the Earth pulling down the apple, but it's not what really happens.

So yes: Study the obvious thoroughly, and you pretty soon lose any idea about "obviousness".

Also, fun fact, say the word "obvious" enough times and it starts to lose all sense of meaning, it just turns into a bunch of sounds...actually, that works with pretty much any word. Works better with multi-syllable words, though:)

Here in the UK, the pirate bay is largely blocked. of couse there are ways around it, but they are technical.

Virtually every casual pirate of years past that i knew, if you ask them now, has no idea how to download the latest release movies off the web now that TPB is effectively blocked in the UK.

Anecdotally, anyway, it would seem that the block is effective. not 100% effective, but somewhat effective. my 'sample' includes people in their 20s and 30s who are otherwise technically savvy. They also dont

Anecdotally, anyway, it would seem that the block is effective. not 100% effective, but somewhat effective.

I don't know... Just moved to the UK a couple of weeks ago. A quick google search for how to access the site in the UK had me up and running pretty dang quickly. I'd say 7 minutes to find a workaround is not very effective.

That people feel they are entitled to steal someone else's work and not compensate that person (or group)? Yes, it is sad that a study needs to state the obvious

Or that when presented with a paid option that is less convenient and more restricted than the free option, they'll take the free option. If there were a legitimate and reasonably priced download service for non-DRM protected movies, then there would be less incentive to pirate movies, and the industry would have a leg to stand on when they whine that downloaders are ruining their business.

I usually buy used disks from amazon and rip them, while if I wanted to, I could download a movie torrent in a few hour

Exactly, in most cases piracy is a indication of a service problem. It is amazing the number of times I have and have seen others have to pirate a game I already own, just because the DRM-copy fails to function as advertised due to draconian DRM restrictions. Furthermore the pirated copy doesn't require things such as disks in the CD drive which I would rather not have to look for. On the other hand all of the games I have gotten off of Steam, although using Steam's DRM system, I have not had to pirate because their system just works for me.

Whenever a pirated copy is better then the legal copy, there is something wrong with the legal copy.

I think anyone who's gamed for very long has used the "no-cd" or other "pirate" hacks to fix annoyances. That or they've "pirated" a game because their cd/dvd was scratched so they couldn't reinstall it.

Bullshit. As various people and groups have shown, they have provided very easy methods to get their work at extremely cheap prices and people still go out and steal the work.

You can use iTunes if you want. 99 cents for a song and people still complain. Or, if you prefer, RadioHead said they will allow people to download their song (album?) but would appreciate a "donation" for the song. The amount of money they received didn't e

Bullshit. As various people and groups have shown, they have provided very easy methods to get their work at extremely cheap prices and people still go out and steal the work.

You can use iTunes if you want. 99 cents for a song and people still complain. Or, if you prefer, RadioHead said they will allow people to download their song (album?) but would appreciate a "donation" for the song. The amount of money they received didn't even cover the cost of the electricity.

People can use semantics or whatever excuse they choose to explain why they're stealing someone's work without compensating that person, but in the end, they're just that, an excuse. The more you continue to steal someone's work, the more justification you give to them to make it more restrictive.

Perhaps $.99 per song is not a "reasonable price" to someone that many have thousands of songs on their device.

Radiohead must pay more for electricity than most bands if $6M doesn't cover their electricity cost:

The donation-based model is effective for established bands because they already have a mass following and there will always be a fan who would be willing to pay for their music. The question is what would one pay for an album that they want if given a chance to get it for free. There lies the answer to what an album should be sold for. Traditionally it has been sold for $9.99 as a paid download or $14.99 at a retail store. The Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails fans who opted to pay on average were willing to give about $4 to download the album. That is a far cry from the traditional pricing model which dictates that an album is priced between $9.99 and $14.99. Record labels watch out because this is an indication that the pricing on albums is not in unison with market demand and what a music fan perceives as the true value of an album.

According to the NIN band, 800,000 transactions generated $1.6 million in sales revenue in the first week of the "Ghosts I-IV" album's availability, despite the fact that the 36-song version of the album is widely available on torrent sites and file sharing P2P networks. Radiohead's "In Rainbows" generated approximately $6 million in revenues which went directly to the band, with 1,200,000 downloads.

How exact.y do you "steal" the work? You hijack the musicians and force them to play?

And the lack of donations for free downloads... Isn't it maybe that people didn't like their crap?Radiohead sucks massive balls anyway.

And why in hell's name do they want a donation for it? Do they not get enough money for gigs and from royalties from spotify rdio? What did they expect, getting rich from donations ?In the days of crowdfunding this sounds rather than what I already said: that their album sucked so much dick

Maybe you're just trolling, but I'll bite. Why can't you accept that copying is NOT stealing? Maybe copying is illegal or immoral, but it's definitely not stealing. We do have a few crimes on the books other than theft, crimes like vandalism, speeding, reckless driving, libel and slander, assault and battery, trespassing, and littering. I view copying as a sort of anti-vandalism. Vandalism destroys property for no gain to the destroyer, rather than stealing property for gain. Copying is the opposite.

That people feel they are entitled to steal someone else's work and not compensate that person (or group)?

Steal? Sorry, you just outed yourself as an MPAA shill or a moron (or as the moderation says, a troll). If you're raped, do you scream murder? Let me educate you on the difference between copyright infringement and stealing.

Copyright infringement: you upload an MPAA movie tracker to a tracker service. Note that downloading it is neither illegal nor immoral. Upload that movie and if you're caught, it wil

Regardless of what one thinks about copyright, forcing someone to do something ineffective to prevent it is just a waste of resources. Even if it is effective if the cost is greater than the benefit it could be questionable.It seems that it would be reasonable that the copyright holder pays the cost to enforce the copyright, otherwise an entitled copyright holder might request that even symbolic measures should be taken at completely unreasonable costs

It seems that it would be reasonable that the copyright holder pays the cost to enforce the copyright, otherwise an entitled copyright holder might request that even symbolic measures should be taken at completely unreasonable costs

Now if someone can just do this with spurrious takedown requests. When there is no cost to it, there is no reason to stop.

You think that this ruling was common sense? It's very odd to issue a ruling based on whether blocking TPB was effective or ineffective. The only question a judge should ponder is whether the block was justified legally.

If blocking it causes no impact on the illegal uses, while hampering the legal ones... then it is wiser to not block it. Even if there were no legal reasons, blocking TPB costs resources; time and money. Spending those resources for zero gain is a fools errand.

It would be nice if we had a perfect set of rules that could adequately and fairly moderate every possible situation, but we don't. So we appoint people to make judgements on a case-by-case basis. We call them judges, and they've made a wise decision here.

Blocking the pirate bay was a punishment (I don't know who they are punishing for what crime, since it is legal to download in The Netherlands).Judges should use correct force of punishment for the crime.Since the punishment is completely ineffective the Judge will need to look for an alternative and effective punishment.

It's very odd to issue a ruling based on whether blocking TPB was effective or ineffective. The only question a judge should ponder is whether the block was justified legally.

No, no, no. It's not odd at all, it's part of the law (at least in Europe). Article 52 [europa.eu] of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union states:

Any limitation on the exercise of the rights and freedoms recognised by this Charter must be provided for by law and respect the essence of those rights and freedoms. Subject to the principle of proportionality, limitations may be made only if they are necessary and genuinely meet objectives of general interest recognised by the Union or the need to prot

Well, after perusing the frontpage, I can only say that it's about 50:50, and considering the news I'd have to guess that most research and sane judgements are happening abroad while the US make the headlines for lying national security heads and schools teaching fairy tales as facts.

I dunno if I'd really wanna draw attention to that if I was from the US...

They use a comma in the rest of the world too. They just put it in a different place. One hundred thousand and 90/100 is written 100.000,00. Just the opposite of what you are used to. Takes a fraction of a second to get used to.

I second the other poster, knock it off, you are just making Americans look like idiots and as one I am not amused.

Really, you think it makes Americans sound stupid when we prefer to use and read the units that are familiar to us? A simple conversion by one editor would mean that thousands of readers wouldn't need to.

Hang on, I'm still busy calculating how many inches are in 5.5 miles...

By taking a sampling of different pubs in the Netherlands researchers found the increase in phrases like 'Madeas Witness Protection stole 90 minutes of my fucking life' and 'Was ghostrider seriously intended to be that awful?' indicated the blockade may have shortcomings.

its failure was confirmed when sightings of the phrases 'I dont understand why michael bay keeps making Transformer movies' and 'Is Jayden Smith some kind of anagram for helicopter parenting?'

Temperature 6 C, light rain. Not that summery in Netherlands right now.

Argh!!!Don't you know you're supposed to use the temperature scale based on Gabriël Fahrenheit's wife's armpit?1?!1
This is an American-centric website you know. They might throw another hissy fit, just like the one about the numerical format in TFS.

Still 6 C is a bit on the high side; I have it from an authoritative source that in some places the crocuses are already peeking their heads above the ground (poor crocuses).

On the down side...1. Brein has already put out a bit of newsfluff saying that they're planning to appeal.2. If this stands, Brein and others will simply put this on the scales to tip in favor of making downloading illegal* - something that the EU says NL should be doing in the first place; NL is one of the few countries where downloading of movies/music/TV series is legal (uploading is illegal, as is downloading of software, etc.) That in turn could lead to a 3-strikes type law (Even though the one in France fails miserably because 1. people avoid getting caught and 2. even when caught, rarely do people actually get cut off.. so it's all bark and no bite.) or direct targeting of downloaders.

* Within the context of 'piracy'. Obviously you're welcome to download the front page of slashdot, or a linux distribution, view whatever you want on YouTube, etc. etc.

No you wouldnt, not after all the effort the spend convincing everyone that downloading anything is illegal

Despite the widespread hatred against them, Brein, Stichting Thuiskopie and others don't really do the "downloading is illegal!", and their websites actually make fairly clear what the law says can and cannot be done legally.

They can be faulted for many things, but not for any perceived "omg they're trying to make downloading linux illegal!"

Yeah, and even those were rarely issued. The law had, and has, no teeth. If tomorrow they made downloading in NL illegal, but all I'd get would be strongly worded e-mails telling me to stop doing it, and I knew full-well that nothing would ever come of it, I'd add a filter to auto-delete those e-mails and continue downloading. Heck, it'd become a sport on several forums to see who could get the most such e-mails.

Finally! The ban was indeed completely ineffective and the block has been removed at at least one other provider as well. There were so many alternatives, I never had any problem finding a different source for a download, barely noticed it if at all, so it certainly made no sense to keep it in place.

I never understood the reason for it in the first place. Downloading is legal in the Netherlands and we even pay an additional charge on any recording media just to help compensate the effects for the industry,

Nice! And anyway, these guys from BREIN are the most brain-dead that you can find. TPB was blocked but neither it's other URL pirateproxy nor any other torrent site has ever been blocked.People continued downloading as happily as always. And that's a good example of the way these idiots work: They haven't said shit about any other torrent sire, nor about the extremely popular Usenet channels , they have concentrated exclusively on TBP.

In which way the blocking of one single torrent site can have any influen